The education secretary wants teenagers to send each other love poems rather than lewd messages

HIS public persona does not seem to be that of a romantic with a natural
affinity with modern technology. But Michael Gove, the education secretary,
has urged teenagers to stop “sexting” and instead start using a new app to
send each other love poems.

In backing the initiative, Gove, who read English at Oxford, revealed that his
own favourite love poems are Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold and Love by
George Herbert. Less romantically he said he also “adored Wendy Cope’s
Variation on a Lennon and McCartney Song” to be read or sung to the Beatles
tune. It begins:

The new app, Love Book, has been created by Allie Esiri, a close friend of
Samantha Cameron. It contains audio and video recordings of love poems read
by actors including Helena Bonham Carter, Helen McCrory and